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Tootsa, Yoga & Bryony Kimmings

We hope you’ve had a lovely week. Ours has, as ever, been busy busy busy … hence the slight lack of presence on line. But we promise to rectify that.

This week I (Lisa) wrote for Tootsa MacGinty on the wonderful Bryonny Kimmings show at Soho Theatre / Brighton (see below)

And, talking of Tootsa MacGinty, if you have any little ones in your life – check out their amazing summer sale – here are some of our favourite items – (and if we were still smallies we would be wearing this weekend !!)

If you fancy something interesting for the kids to get involved in this summer – I (Katie) have a wonderful program of children’s yoga workshops going on over the holidays.

See below for details and don’t hesitate to get in touch with any questions.

“In an audacious, provocative protest against flagrant global attempts to sexualise and commodify childhood for profit, award-winning artist Bryony Kimmings and her niece Taylor (aged just 9) decided to play the global tween machine at its own game by inventing dinosaur loving, bike riding, tuna pasta eating, alternative pop star Catherine Bennett.This show tackles the issues at the very core of their plight head on. In typically screwball and humorous fashion, Kimmings, creator of acclaimed shows Sex Idiot and 7 Day Drunk, begs the question, what does it really take to be a Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model for a child of the 21st century?” – Soho Theatre

Along with her niece, performance artist Bryony Kimmings set about to create a ‘modern heroine’ – not the over-sexualised-material-disney-girl that seems to have become the norm, but someone who would inspire our younger female generation. And so the character “Catherine Bennett” was born (even having her own show earlier this year at The Southbank Centre).

In an interview with The Independent this week, Bryony says, “I was teaching a group of 10 year old girls and I asked them what they wanted to be when they were older. The ringleader said that she wanted to be on The Only Way is Essex. Then she pretended to have a WAG handbag and a tiny dog and started wiggling her hips. And all the other girls copied … I hadn’t really thought before that the things we take to be trash or light entertainment are actually affecting young girls and their aspirations in a really direct way.”

But it’s not a cute kids show by any means. Reviewed as ‘Hilarious, heartbreaking, troubling and inspirational. Kick-ass in all the right ways.’ 4 * (Time Out) ; ‘Bold, brave and very brilliant; don’t miss.’ 4 * (Independent) ; ‘A work of almost staggering warmth and fragility.’ 4 * (Scotsman) ; it sold out in 2013 and won coveted awards. So definitely one to catch on this small return tour. There are even rumours of a “feminist mind blowing” series for CBBC in the pipeline – a very exciting prospect!

“The message is for us to not just accept that the world is going this way – that we are constantly being sold things and sex is being used to sell them”, says Kimmings. “Children are manipulated into becoming capitalists at a very young age and are being made to feel insecure by the sexual imagery they see everywhere.”